resources
We'll link the main readings from the schedule page, but here are some others that we'll point to from time to time.
General
Some stuff that's specific to the first two weeks
Here's the xkcd cartoon Adam put up in the first class:
- An article from the Guardian this week in which mathematician Marcus de Sautoy basically does the first writing assignment. He quotes from the Poincare that we read and Hardy's Mathematician's Apology that was on the shortlist for this week's reading but didn't make the cut (but we might see later). There's also a link to a video of the talk from which the article was derived, but I haven't looked at that.
March 3rd
Background questions arising from Liebniz readings
- Princess of Wales in 1715? Caroline of Ansbach. Hanover.
- Royalty and their tutors: who? patronage? standard lessons?
- Who is Clark (tutor of Caroline)? Samuel Clark, Newtonian, English philosopher and clergyman---major figure in English philosophy between Locke and Berkeley.
- Relationship of scholars to either clergy or university?
- Aether vs vacuum.
- Standard rhetorical practice in 17th/18th Century letter writing.
- How is the mail sent? King's couriers?
- Practice of academic journals in 17th/18th Century.
- What does it mean to be a thinker/scientist/mathematician in the late 17th Century?
- Where was Liebniz born; where did he live? Protestant? Lutheran.
